Cydia, Mozilla, Skype and Others Join EFF in Jailbreak Fight

All three have filed comments with the U.S. Copyright office supporting the Electronic Frontier Foundation's request for an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act who's goal is to allow Jailbreakers to not have any fear of possible legal Jailbreaking ramifications even though Apple claims that Jailbreaking is illegal.

Mozilla

In an interview with Computer World Mozilla CEO John Lilly said "This is not us criticizing Apple," and then "But it's the principle of the thing. Choice is good for users, and choice shouldn't be criminalized. The Internet is too important for all of us for that."

Mozilla General Counsel Harvey Anderson are quoted saying "Given the choice, would we work on a platform where the sole company controlling it makes us unwelcome, or would we work on a platform, like Linux, where we are welcome? The answer is going to be easy for us," continuing with "These devices contain Internet Web browser, and are therefore effectively users' doorway to the Internet -- a public commons. Consumers should be entitled to use any software program they choose to access the Internet."

While we believe the possibility of Mozilla actively developing an iPhone application with the intention of distribution via Cydia on Jailbroken phones it is a definite possibility, The quotes above seem to indicate that if nothing else they have interest.

Skype

Skype has their own reasons for supporting the EFF's request for exemption. Skype counsels Henry Goldberg and Devendra Kumar say that Skype "strongly supports open wireless broadband networks; i.e., wireless networks on which users can attach (non-harmful) devices of their choice ('no locking') and use software applications of their choice on such devices ('no blocking')."

Currently Skype does not have an application on the iPhone but third parties do have Voip apps available on the AppStore that support Skype (but only over wifi). Is Skype possibly working on their own application?

Others

Meany other people filed comments both for and against the EFF's proposed exemption including Jay Freeman (developer of Cydia), ebay, and even Time Warner. If you would like to see everyone that filed comments and read their comments you can at copyright.gov